Analytical Study of the Effect of Heat Pipe Cooling in Machining

Tool wear of machine tools and large usage of cutting fluids is one of the major problems in manufacturing. Cutting fluids are used to cool down the tool and have been shown to cause environmental problems in machine shops. Tool life and temperature have an inverse relationship, namely that the higher the temperature at the tool-chip interface is, the lower the tool life will be, and vice-versa. In this paper an innovative approach was taken to create an analytical solution to the effect of the embedded heat pipe on temperature of the tool and tool life. It has been well documented in the industry that the major factors that contribute to tool wear are the material properties of the tool insert and the work piece, cutting speed, depth of cut and feed rate. The analytical approach taken in this project is unique because it does not only take into account the complex boundary conditions of heat transfer but also the aforementioned factors and variety of possible cutting conditions. The analytical solution is in the form of set of equations which were developed to simulate the behavior of the tool insert under normal cutting conditions. Both cases, with and without heat-pipe were considered. The predicted temperature data was then compared to the existing experimental data, with very good results. In the end the project yields a quantitative evaluation on influence of mechanical properties of insert, work piece, heat pipe and cutting conditions on tool wear.